Tuesday, May 08, 2018 - Jo Cope’s window display at the YKK London Showroom is an official part of London Craft Week, with an opening night party and live performance to be held on 9th May. Exploring the complex subject of love and its parallels with addiction and relationships, Cope’s collection will be on display until 25th May 2018.

Installation
Cope's installation narrates the journey of love as a means of self-help through a series of extraordinary handcrafted leather shoes and objects each carrying symbolic meanings and messages. With a creative process at the intersection of fashion, art, and craft, Cope goes far beyond conventional shoe-making aesthetics and techniques, developing new processes and functions all the time to redefining the boundaries of footwear. The original collection 'The Language of Feet in the Walk of Life' is an evolving piece of work, reflecting Cope’s visionary approach. With new pieces continually added to extend its meaning; as new life lessons are learnt. Constant throughout the collection is design that embodies real human experiences and a self-therapeutic approach. In a testament to the high craftsmanship involved, the ‘Looking for Love’ double ended relationship shoes took five months to create and are over one metre in length. Audiences are encouraged to look, think and reflect upon their own relationships with others, and more importantly their own selves.

She seeks to redefine fashion’s potential future as something that has a deeper language, value and purpose. The opening night at the YKK London Showroom will also include a performance. Entitled 'Lessons in Love', a new collaborative work where Cope partners with Antonio de la Fe, a Spanish born choreographer based in London. The work seeks to bring the shoes to life through a four part written score. The live performance has been inspired by their joint interest in working with both words and body, and to explore the relationship between conceptual footwear and dance as progressive practice. London performance art partners Antonio Branco and Riccardo Tarocco will conduct the performance.

Cope said: 'The pieces on display at the YKK London Showroom and the performance as part of the opening night have been developed specifically for this collaboration and the London Craft Week event. I think the subject of Love is something that everyone can relate to and the performance is highly experimental, I am so excited to see it come to life on the night as not even the performers will know what to expect until they pick up the score on the night, their responses and actions will be truly live.'

With a BA Fashion Design degree from Nottingham Trent University, Cope recently returned to education after working with galleries and running her own studio for the last decade, to complete an MA in the prestigious Fashion Artefacts course at the London College of Fashion. This developed her high-end craft skills alongside conceptual practice. Cope is a part time lecturer and guest speaker at a number of universities, delivering modules and directing courses and workshops across art and design disciplines.

Monday, June 12, 2017 - On Saturday, June 17th, the Fashion and Shoe Designing Academy of Fine Arts Department of Sint-Niklaas presents it's annual sensational and spectacular fashion show for the 20th time and the shoe show for the sixth time. For this presentation the Techniekhuis will be transformed into a show location.

The fashion and shoe designs of part-time education in Sint-Niklaas, Fashion Design department: led by Ellen Monstrey and assisted by Maureen Declercq and Rey Pador. And shoe design by Anne Poesen & Hans De Clercq has manifested itself for many years as a professional and very inspiring department looking far beyond the borders of Sint-Niklaas. What makes this program so special is that it is a part-time education program. The students combine this training with other part-time studies or with their full time or part time jobs. Motivation and enthusiasm is the driving force. For some people it means finally realizing their childhood dream. It requires huge commitment and only who is passionate enough gets to the finish line. Because the program sets its goals very, academic, high.

Focus on both fashion and shoe design on the design, structure, craft, form study , chart and study of historical and ethnic costumes. The programs of both directions are similar and personal vision and authenticity are encouraged from the first year.

The Shoe Design department was created out of passion for the craft. For shoe design there are 30 candidates. The show is the culmination of an academic year and gives students from the first year on a platform to show their work, their vision and creativity. That every year 1.200 people, not just family and insiders, come to visit this show is the best form of appreciation for this department and it's students. So make sure you will also join this dazzling, exciting, inspiring show!

Sunday, May 29, 2016 - Do you know that your shoes are talkative and say a lot about the person wearing them? To better understand what these objects reveal, the exhibition takes you step by step to discover pairs stemming from every continent, from the 16th to the 21st century, from delicate lotuses for bound feet in China to trainers nowadays. This exhibition, in co-production with the Musée international de la Chaussure de Romans, on show at the wonderful new Musee des Confluences. From June 7 2016 till April 30 2017.

Whether they be sandals, boots, moccasins, slippers or something else, from here or elsewhere, from yesterday, today or the future, shoes are intimately linked with human history. It is therefore not surprising that they are so close to us, whether we are aware of it or not. They act as witnesses to various life styles, as objects of desire, and often indicate belonging to a group. Under the gaze of whoever knows how to decipher them, they reveal codes and symbols. These multiple facets thus reassure us with the idea that there is nothing anodyne in the shoes we chose to wear. At the heart of the exhibition, you will be led to ask questions about your own shoes and what they say about you. The museum invites you to leave your comments and to contribute in this way to reflexion.

Shoe performance by Xavier G-Solis
At the opening 7th of June there will be a shoe performance by Catalan artist Xavier G-Solis at 19.00.
His work specially conceived for this exhibition'L’ÂME DANS LES CHAUSSURES' a 4 x 3 m photography on paper, that sheds a contemporary light on our intimate relationship with the shoe will be part of the exhibition 'At your Feet'.

At your feet
The exhibition presents nearly a hundred pairs from museum collections, from the International Footwear Museum at Romans, loans from institutions and private collectors.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - Allow me to present you a banquet full of aesthetic flavors and tastes. An artistic feast in footwear presented by Chu-Ting Lee from Royal College of Art Womenswear Footwear. Tuesday 15 september at 10.30 at the Gallery Mess Bar, Saatchi Gallery London, UK.

Dates:
Tuesday 15 september at 10.30- 18.00
Wednesday 16 september at 10.30- 18.00
Thursday 17 september at 10.30- 18.00

Sunday, May 03, 2015 - Why shoes? An invitation to bring a whole new perspective on the common and ordinary object 'the shoe'. A Retrospective exhibition from Catelan artist Xavier G-Solís, from Barcelona at the Musée international de la Chaussure de Romans in France. On show from 10 April till 25 Oktober 2015. With a special performance by Xavier G-Solís 16th of May during the Museum night (Nuit des Musées).

This exhibition traces the evolution and the work of Catalan artist Xavier G-Solís, philosopher and training sculptor, visual artist. For 15 years he led a reflection on the concept of the object 'used footwear' considering it as the symbol of the relationship between people and the world.

Xavier G-G-Solís has a degree in Philosophy from the University of Barcelona and a degree in advanced technique in sculpture from the Las Palmas Gran Canaria School of Arts. He currently lives in Barcelona were he fully dedicates himself to contemporary art. Over the last 10 years he has developed a collection of shoe works and projects of the 'used shoe', using the shoe as a paradigmatic symbol of the history of modern man. His work reflects the way in which the shoe G-Golis transforms worn shoes and puts them in a situation in installations and performances that really challenge. Shoe cars, shoe veils, shoes engraved... his work is visual, graphic and consists of photographs, videos and sculptures. This exhibition offers an approach that is aesthetic, poetic, playful and critical.

Musée international de la chaussure de Romans
The museum invites you on a journey to discover the world of this timeless, universal object - the shoe. Ilts collection is kept in a prestigious setting, the former 'Convent of the Visitation', allowing it to display shoes in all its forms, from the oldest to the most contempory and the most classical to the most extravagant or exotic. Situated in Romans, a town that owes its renown to leatherworking and shoemaking, the international Museum is both a place of endless inspiration for professionals and an exceptional showcase for the famous boot and shoemakers of yesterday and today.